Sendmail vs Postfix

Harry P

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Is Sendmail the same function as Postfix? I have postfix installed on my server and I can send outgoing mail using this command:
Code:
mail -s "Subject" [email protected]
but this is mail command to test email from SSH. Is this using sendmail or postfix? Is "sendmail" just a tool or something that supported to send emails to another servers? what is the difference between Sendmail and Postfix?
 

hostens

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Both Sendmail and Postfix are SMTP services. There are also another popular SMTP service - EXIM. You could look at them as alternatives. Sendmail is much older and been there from 1982 while Postfix was released on 1997. From my experience Sendmail is harder to configure or introduce same changes.
 

hfav

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Sendmail is a very plain and simple Mail Transfer Agent (MTA), which implements the SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) amongst others and can be used to transmit emails, typically on Linux dedicated or virtual servers.

Normally to send mail using sendmail
Postfix is a free and open-source Mail Transfer agent (MTA), which routes and delivers electronic mail, intended as an alternative to Sendmail MTA.
 

LJSHost

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Sendmail has been around forever and served it's purpose for a good many years but it's had it's day imo :think:

The mail command is just like a command line mail client, it is mostly used in scripts.

They are both MTA's (Mail Transport Agent) that will receive the mail from the command. Sendmail is very old and I would recommend Postfix or Exim.
 

gigsgigs

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Sendmail and Postfix is two different type of Email Server available in Linux/Unix Operating System.

Sendmail is quite long available in Market , the features is stable, a lot of configuration parameters too.

Postfix , the benefit is easy to configure routing base Email Server . For example, you need to route the email to spam or virus scanning then routing back.

Postfix more concern on security by default setup . However if you know how to configure sendmail, it can be secure too.
 

VictorVictories

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Both the Postfix and Sendmail have their pros and cons. The tools that one choose will depend on the number of criteria that fall right for the person using the tools.

Postfix performs better under heavy load. It is simple to understand configuration files, so you don't have to pay web interface to manage them.

Sendmail has been around for quite some time now the code complies very well. Thus one needs use these tools and find which one is then best for them.
 

Hugo E.

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Is Sendmail the same function as Postfix? I have postfix installed on my server and I can send outgoing mail using this command:
Code:
mail -s "Subject" [email protected]
but this is mail command to test email from SSH. Is this using sendmail or postfix? Is "sendmail" just a tool or something that supported to send emails to another servers? what is the difference between Sendmail and Postfix?
This command only tells you that you could send email out on your server.

If you want to use sendmail on Linux, checking with this following command

Code:
[root@server ~]# which sendmail
/usr/sbin/sendmail

If sendmail is installed, you can test sending email with this command

Code:
echo "Subject: sendmail test" | sendmail -v [email protected]

Hope it helps!
 
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